Notes

64 annotations: 12 on established facts and identifications, 52 interpretive readings. Each links back to its place in the poem.

Allusion 12
Source 4
Place 5
History 1
Prosody 5
Theme 24
Echo 8
Text 5

Burnt Norton

The quartet

Burnt Norton: the house and its garden Place
How Burnt Norton was made History
The two fragments of Heraclitus Source
Why “quartets”? Theme

Movement I

The opening paragraph: abstract statement Prosody · 1 · scholar
An argument about time Theme · 1
The life not lived Theme · 6
From argument to image Theme · 11
The poet turns to the reader Prosody · 14 · scholar
The door into the rose-garden Allusion · 14
Dust and dried petals Theme · 17 · scholar
“Our first world” Theme · 23
The deceiving thrush Echo · 24 · scholar
Who are “they”? Allusion · 26
Unheard music Allusion · 30
The crossing eyebeam Allusion · 31 · scholar
The formal garden Place · 35 · scholar
The drained pool Place · 36
Water out of sunlight Theme · 38
The lotos Allusion · 39
The heart of light Echo · 40 · scholar
A cloud passes Theme · 42
Hidden children Echo · 43 · scholar
“Very much reality” Text · 46

Movement II

The lyric: earth and stars Prosody · 1 · scholar
The axle-tree Text · 2 · scholar
The body's music Theme · 3
Microcosm and macrocosm Theme · 8
Hunter and hunted Allusion · 14 · scholar
The still point Theme · 16
The dance Theme · 21
Erhebung Text · 27 · scholar
Chained in time Theme · 32 · scholar
A merciful weakness Theme · 34
Three remembered moments Theme · 41
Smokefall Text · 42 · scholar
Through time Theme · 43

Movement III

The Underground Place · 1
Neither light nor darkness Allusion · 3
Distraction Prosody · 11
Blown by the wind Allusion · 14 · scholar
The gloomy hills of London Place · 21 · scholar
Descend lower: the dark night Source · 24
Three privations Source · 29 · scholar
One way, and the same Echo · 32 · scholar
Metalled ways Text · 36 · scholar

Movement IV

The fourth movement: a lyric of ten lines Prosody · scholar
The bell buries the day Theme · 1
Sunflower and clematis Allusion · 3 · scholar
The yew Theme · 6
The kingfisher's flash Theme · 8

Movement V

Words and music in time Theme · 1
The Chinese jar Allusion · 6
The held note Theme · 8 · scholar
End before beginning Echo · 10
Words under strain Theme · 14
The Word in the desert Allusion · 20
The disconsolate chimera Allusion · 23 · scholar
The ten stairs Source · 25
Unmoving love Theme · 28
A shaft of sunlight Echo · 33
The hidden laughter Echo · 35 · scholar
Quick now, here, now, always Echo · 37
The waste sad time Theme · 38

East Coker

Annotations for this quartet are in progress.

The Dry Salvages

Annotations for this quartet are in progress.

Little Gidding

Annotations for this quartet are in progress.